Latest UK Episode Discussion (2006-2017 Seasons)

[Brian]

Good analysis Red about Nate, Matt, Leah and Kat. Be interesting to see how they all play out in the next few weeks. Pit I'm going to be away a lot - just have to catch up with episodes when I get back. I've seen Monday's on 5*, but not giving anything away.

Agree Atrus, the ATM robbery came out of the blue - most unexpected and out of character for Matt, even if he was drunk. Those machines are pretty hard to dislodge - how did they hack away the plaster surround, even if they were drunk? Not a realistic storyline.  

I hope Evie stops her matchmaking attempts and Josh should put his foot down with her as well. Why does he just go along with everything, like a lapdog?

I do hope that Kyle and Phoebe get back together and make more music. They are so right and mature for each other. Angelica is quite right - you can't make relationships work if they want different things out of life, but perhaps Kyle might look after the new Braxton a lot and that might be a surrogate child for him and perhaps Phoebe might be ok with that!

[Angelica]

It could just be me over-analysing it, but I felt from the heartfelt glances like they were going somewhere that I'd rather they didn't with Ricky and Kyle during the post-birth scenes at the hospital on Tuesday. That despite the fact that he still seems to be sniffing around Phoebe, and that Billie is still sniffing around him. Still, Kyle has said never again to Billie, and Phoebe appeared to really hammer the nails into the coffin of their relationship at the gig, so perhaps they are freeing him up for something else...

I thought the moment between Ricky and Kyle was more about the fact that Kyle really wants a family, and by having this baby, Ricky has expanded his family. And Ricky went through the same dilemna with Brax, with Brax not initially wanting a child, and Ricky needing to decide whether she wanted a child more than she wanted to be with Brax. I did think their moment was another nail in the coffin of Phoebe's and Kyle's relationship because Kyle looked so happy at having a nephew that I can't see him being willing to compromise on having a family to reunite with Phoebe.

Nice scenes between Alf, Maddy and Roo. Loved that Alf pacified Maddy by rightly pointing out that it was refreshing for her to be dealing with normal teenage drama. Evie was really putting her foot in it with Maddy, and I laughed at Josh's and Evie's inability to realise how best to help Maddy (rather than coming up with ideas like murals and doing her homework). And how perfectly teenage-like it was that Evie thought that a romance would solve Maddy's problems or make her happy However, that moment when with Evie and Josh in the hospital while Maddy was having chemo was perfect. I never thought I would buy a friendship between Evie and Maddy, but they've managed to believably pull it off.

[Psychic Wombat]

Problem with Phoebe is she just wants to be an eternal teenager, she'll probably be the same in her 30's, getting drunk at parties and regretting it. Kyle on the other hand is beginning want the family life he never had. I can't see a future for the them together. I still reckon Billie could use the baby trap to get Kyle.

The Josh, Evie, Matt, Maddie thing must be weird what with Josh and Maddie having a long relationship, Evie should listen to Josh he knows Maddie better than anyone. And I wish Roo would stop interfering in Maddies personal life, all teenagers fallout from time to time they sort it out no big deal - but then Roo doesn't have a life of her own. Not sure what's wrong with Matt, maybe it's the implications of blowing his HSC that's sent him ferule but robbing ATM's seems a bit off the wall for him (forgive the pun). He should go off on the Blaxland like Alf, worked for him :-)

The Ash Denny storyline is pretty boring TBH. Can we have less relationship storylines and more storylines please, lately H&A, it's becoming like a TV version of Jackie.

 

[c120701]

I was amazed when Roo answered the phone as 'Summer Bay Caravan Park' - maybe they'll remember when the house was a hub of human traffic with people collecting line, checking in/out or paying rent too. 

[Slade]

I know it's a serious storyline but I just find it really funny when Leah loses it sometimes.  I especially liked the part where she came into school the next morning after biting Zac's head off the night before all bubbly as if nothing happened.  VJs bemused reaction was quite amusing too.  I'll criticise Matt as much as the next person but really wasn't sure about Leah giving Kat the money she found in his room and strangely found myself more on Nate's side.  She should have waited to try and properly establish what happened but I appreciate that she's not herself.  Didn't like Nate speaking to Kat about it afterwards though.

Found Phoebe's gig really funny.  What was Kyle thinking trying to talk to her like that?  Right before she was about to start singing.  Couldn't he have just waited?  Billie still seems obsessed with Kyle though.

I thought Andy was going to kick off when he saw Hannah dancing with that guy and was surprised he didn't even say anything when she got back.  I hope it's one of those things where he doesn't bottle it up then snap at her at another time.

Initially I thought Oscar was over Maddy and was very disappointed that apparently he isn't.  Why are the writers rehashing this particular storyline?  WHY?

I laughed at Maddy's hissy fit about being a charity case to Roo.  Perhaps Evelyn should have slapped her in the face again if that would have made her feel less of a charity case.  Once again the cancer storyline feels for me that it's wasting other characters screentime.  This whole trying to set Maddy/Matt up thing is extremely tiresome.  Ironically whilst I don't think it was Evelyn's intention to treat Maddy like charity, the way she and Josh kept trying to text/call her seemed quite desperate and could be misconstrued as such.  My issue with them yesterday was that they were a couple and (whilst I don't particularly want to see them stick their tongues down each others throats every five minutes) all they seemed to be doing was focusing on Maddy.  At least Matt has another storyline.  Objectively I do partially get why Maddy wasn't happy even though I didn't agree with her reasons.  Does anybody like being setup romantically regardless of whether they are ill or not?  I found Roo quite annoying when she twice jumped in when Josh/Evelyn were talking about Maddy.  Maddy's behaviour seemed fairly reminiscent of what I found so annoying about her.  Not sure what to make of them all studying together.  If it means no more trying to set Maddy and Matt up then great.

[H&Alover]

I'm with the others of you on here who think Evie wasn't treating Maddy as an invalid and just wanted to cheer her up. Maybe it's because Maddy's emotions are all over the place that made her think that.  I suppose Roo was doing her over protective bit, though Maddy had it well under control.  I like how Alf used his facing up to his demons by going to therapy to get Maddy to go and see Evie and Josh.  I think Matt told Maddy because he didn't want think he was leading her on.  For once Evie did have  a good idea with her and Josh joining her in Maddy's chemo session.

I may be getting muddled but didn't Matt stuff that money Leah found under his mattress a while back, it was about the time Evie was trying to get to get him to talk and he'd just come back from a weekend with his old mates, he was drunk and made a move on her?  If it was then  the Mango River cops are very slow on following up crimes in their area!  I don't think Leah had any other choice but to hand over the money she found after failing to get Matt to tell her where he got it, the police must have ways of finding out if was part of the loot stolen from the ATM, serial numbers matching for example. Nate was way, way out of line in trying to persuade Kat to 'lose' it.

Lucky it was Matt Leah blew up at at school, another pupil would have could have had a real problem and been really have been upset. Like how VJ was there for her and persuaded her to go home, even in her condition she was on a hiding to nothing thinking Zac wouldn't find out.

John Palmer first made an appearance back in 2009 when his stepson, Trey, was being tutored by Kirsty. He really wasn't  a nice character back then, but has mellowed which was thanks to him meeting Gina.

 

[atrus]

I could see both sides of the cashpoint storyline on Friday. It was certainly completely fair for Kat to refuse Nate's request to turn a blind eye and be quite annoyed about it; indeed, being a police officer, you wouldn't have expected her to act any differently, and it left Nate looking pretty naive. (Although we know she's turned a blind eye before for the Braxtons and during a murder investigation, too. (I think - I wasn't paying that much attention at the time, admittedly.))

But the debate between Nate and Leah was trickier to take sides with. For the first time I'm getting more of a sense of Nate as a character, and warming him to a bit - in his shoes, and knowing the state that Matt was in at the time of the ATM robbery and how he's improved himself since, I'm not sure I would have wanted to dob him in either. (Although I wouldn't have actively helped to cover it up, and would have been really annoyed to be put in that position by him.) But on the other hand I did also sympathise with Leah's position; she has a young son and, reasonably, doesn't feel she wants her house being used to hide the spoils of crime.

I didn't feel Leah's health was particularly the cause of her decision, therefore; but the issue of whether the brain aneurysm is affecting Leah's judgement does raise all kinds of interesting ethical issues that go to the heart of the storyline more generally. Can our thoughts and decisions be considered not our own because of an anomaly in the brain - and if so, what if that anomaly was always there, isn't a recognised medical condition and doesn't show up on a scan? Does Matt have a brain anomaly, and that's why he's inclined to drink, and (possibly) rob ATMs?

[H&Alover]

I think Leah told Irene the aneurysm  was caused by the crash, I guess these things don't always show up right away and the hospital wouldn't have looked for it at the time.

There is photographic evidence of Matt being near, note that there has been careful use of that word, near the ATM, doesn't conclusively prove he did have anything to with it. Another thing, did Matt put that rubber band round the money, if he didn't unlikely it came from the ATM is it?

[CaptainHulk]

.And the real problem is, given the show's current moral integrity problems that has seen a murderer like Barrett treated like a comedy character, 

In all fairness, Jake had it coming and is missed by nobody but I still reckon Andy should cop for it but I don't think he will. Even if he does hand himself in he'll probably get an ambiguous fate ala Jesse, Will and Hyde.

[Red Ranger 1]

Well, I was relieved to see that, essentially, Matt's storyline ended up coming down on the right side of the law.It was frustrating to see Leah beating herself up and letting Nate get to her at the start, so I'm glad that Matt didn't blame her at all and told her she did the right thing.Because this did need to be handled Leah and Kat's way rather than Nate's:No-one wants to see Matt thrown in jail but they need to help him within the law, focusing on mitigation and getting him to do the right thing and tell the truth, not covering up for him.(In fact, if the right spin is put on it, Leah finding the money actually works in Matt's favour:The fact that he didn't spend the money suggests it was a drunken stunt that he did for a laugh without considering the seriousness of it, rather than him doing it because of greed and wanting the money.)It was slightly frustrating to see Matt lapse back into self-pity so easily but I'm glad he pulled his way out of it quickly.

The other two storylines sadly suffered from a lack of credibility in the pay-off.It's very in character for a man like Alf to clam up and rush out when being probed like that...but would Maria really ring up Roo and tell her what happened?What about confidentiality?

Meanwhile, I loved the Ricky/Kyle stuff here.It's always good to get those little insights into Kyle's past, with the suggestion that he's been around young children before.(And not just Harley.)Despite Ricky dubbing herself a single mother, she's got a lot of family around her, whether she wants them or not, with Ash semi-officially adopted into the clan:I loved his and Kyle's suggestion for baby names.But the last scene saw realism go jumping off a cliff:Would Brax really be there watching while his son is being searched?Every other time we've seen someone have visitors they've been in the open, well away from the visitors' reception, so why the change?As with him not being told about Ricky's labour last week, it feels logic has been thrown out the window for a contrived "poignant" scene.